Journal of Markets & Morality

Volume 6, Number 2 (Fall 2003): 453–478

Copyright © 2003

Is Adam Smith’s
Moral Philosophy
an Adequate
Foundation for the James Halteman
Market Economy? Wheaton College

Alasdair MacIntyre argues that the Enlightenment ideology, which includes

Adam Smith’s moral theory, lacks any sense of telos and will, therefore, fail in
the long run. This article accepts MacIntyre’s challenge and examines Smith’s
moral philosophy arguing that Smith did not completely disgard a telos-based
moral philosophy. Human nature, custom, and habit are only part of Smith’s
moral framework, which does have touches of an Aristotelian-based virtue ethics
that seeks the perfection of people. From this assertion, the question arises
whether a Smithian based moral theory is a sufficient foundation on which mar-
kets can thrive. The affirmative response to this question leads one to ponder
what value a Christian-based moral system adds to the viability of the social
order. Several responses to this question are offered, but the position that one
takes on this question will depend on the theological tradition from which one
comes.

Introduction
This article attempts to show that Adam Smith did not completely abandon
the notion that morality must ultimately be derived from the purpose or telos
for which people were created. Alasdair MacIntyre argues that Adam Smith
and other Enlightenment thinkers considered moral life to be outside the scope
of reason and objective analysis. Rather, they based morality on what subjec-
tively seemed natural and appropriate in a particular context given the nature
of humanity. He believes that this project will ultimately fail along with what-
ever social systems are built on such a moral base. While I believe MacIntyre

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makes an important point about the prospects for a social order constructed
without some ultimate purpose, I will argue that Smith did not exclude human
telos from his work and that his moral system has enduring qualities that can
sustain the market economy if followers of Smith are willing to integrate
Smith’s moral theory with his economic system. Finally, I will suggest that
Christianity adds important qualities to economic life but that a market econ-
omy does not have to be Christian to survive.
MacIntyre’s Challenge to Enlightenment Thinking
In After Virtue, Alasdair MacIntyre argues that the Enlightenment’s quest for
unconditional scientific truth has contributed to the marginalization of ques-
tions about meaning and value in contemporary philosophy and social sci-
ence. This is true because “Reason is calculative; it can assess truths of fact
and mathematical relations but nothing more. In the realm of practice, there-
fore, it can speak only of means. About ends it must be silent. Reason cannot
even, as Descartes believed, refute skepticism; and hence, a central achieve-
ment of reason according to Pascal, is to recognize that our beliefs are ulti-
mately founded on nature, custom, and habit.”1
Consequently, the Enlightenment thinkers, when dealing with ethics and
morality, grounded behavior in speculation about people as they happen to be,
given their nature as well as their social and cultural setting. This rejection of
objective reason as a foundation for ethical and moral judgment, in
MacIntyre’s view, will cause such judgments to fail as meaningful guides in
life. MacIntyre sees Pascal, Descartes, Hume, and most other Enlightenment
thinkers as contributing to this trend. They all have made moral life little more
than something that seems reasonable and acceptable from the vantage point
of human nature itself. In MacIntyre’s view, even Kant believed along with
Pascal and Hume that reason
discerns no essential natures and no teleological features in the objective
universe available for study by physics. Thus, their disagreements on human
nature coexist with striking and important agreements, and what is true of
them is true also of Diderot, of Smith, and of Kierkegaard. All reject any
teleological view of human nature, any view of man as having an essence
that defines his true end. But to understand this is to understand why their
project of finding a basis for morality had to fail.2
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MacIntyre’s framework for conceptualizing the problem can be sketched as
follows.
People as they People as they ought to be
Ethics and Moral Precepts
happen to be. if they recognize their true
telos.
If people are to make sense of moral precepts, they must understand their
lives as having a telos that originates outside of their own nature and, toward
which, these moral precepts give guidance. Within this teleological frame-
work, the moral precepts lead to socially constructive behavior which, when
institutionalized, provides an effective social glue. On MacIntyre’s account,
this teleological approach to grounding moral precepts held sway throughout
the history of the West until the Enlightenment period, first in terms of
Aristotle’s metaphysical biology and then in terms of medieval Christendom’s
assumption of divine providence. When these worldviews were diminished by
Enlightenment thinking, the essential importance of teleology faded and moral
precepts were left hanging without an anchor. In the diagram above, the right-
side box disappears and ethics and moral precepts have no grounding. In short,
because Enlightenment thinkers supposed that sufficient moral resources could
be found within human nature alone, they no longer saw a need for the teleo-
logical foundations previously provided by metaphysical biology and Divine
Providence.
The fallout of this failure of Enlightenment thinkers to understand the
importance of telos for grounding moral precepts, MacIntyre maintains, is
emotivism. In MacIntyre’s words, “For what emotivism asserts is in central
part that there are and can be no valid, rational justifications for any claims
that objective and impersonal moral standards exist and hence that there are
no such standards.”3 Rather, moral standards are subjective, contextualized,
and individually conditioned. MacIntyre’s characterization of Enlightenment
thought emphasizes the autonomous individual as the focal point of analysis.
The unifying preoccupation of that tradition is the condition of those who
see in the social world nothing but a meeting place for individual wills,
each with its own set of attitudes and preferences and who understand that
world solely as an arena for the achievement of their own satisfaction, who
interpret reality as a series of opportunities for their enjoyment, and for
whom the last enemy is boredom.4
In other words, one of the side effects of the Enlightenment failure is a world
that sees people operating as the economic person, homo economicus.
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While MacIntyre’s assessment of the Enlightenment condition may be cor-
rect, I believe his reading of Adam Smith as one who contributed to the decline
of a telos-based morality is debatable. Indeed, it is a thesis of this article that
Smith went to great pains to understand humans as they happen to be and as
they ought to be if they realize their true telos. His life’s work in moral phi-
losophy was an attempt to show the moral process that is needed to control
human passions so that a higher moral purpose, external to the person, could
be reached. True, Smith was a product of the process that MacIntyre describes,
but he was never able to completely abandon the idea that authentic morality
and ethics need some sense of human telos even though that sense is based on
a nebulous, transcendent awareness rather than on a God of revelation. Smith’s
moral theory will be summarized in the following sections with special atten-
tion given to the way in which human telos seeps through the analysis.
Why It Is Easy to Misinterpret Smith
For more than two centuries Adam Smith has been recognized as one of the
most astute analysts of economic behavior in spite of the fact that his work
was done before the Industrial Revolution reached its full bloom. He is not
easy to categorize because of the many influences that were at work in his
thinking. He was schooled in the Scottish Enlightenment context and heavily
influenced by a Christian, Francis Hutcheson, who believed that humans have
an innate moral sense. He was a close personal and professional friend of the
atheist empiricist David Hume, who came out of a Scottish Presbyterian back-
ground. Significant to his moral theory is the influence of the Stoic tradition
reaching back to the Greeks. Their concept of a logos-ordered world to which
one submitted by self-control was not lost on Smith. The deist label is most
commonly applied to Smith’s philosophical and religious posture, since he
sees the Creator as a benevolent but detached force in the order of things.
At the outset, it is important to note two reasons why a modern reading of
Smith can easily result in MacIntyre’s placement of Smith with the typical
Enlightenment scholar. The background that Smith worked against was one in
which Christianity’s heavy moral hand on commerce was beginning to fall
away. Its impact had been restrictive, and profitable commercial activity had
often been considered sinful. Smith’s views had the effect of replacing
Christian theology with a Stoic form of natural theology. If Smith was going
to err in his efforts, he would most likely have wanted to err on the side of
downplaying anything that looked like religious moral restraint. On the other
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hand, modern economists work in a methodology that claims to be value-free.
They are inclined to see moral issues and notions of virtue as outside of eco-
nomic thinking altogether. Putting these two tendencies together, it is fair to
conclude that most interpretations of Smith’s work will lean in the direction of
seeing a minimum of moral reflection in Smith’s work. In short, moderns,
who see no role for moral reflection in economic analysis, interpreting Smith,
who was trying to move economics away from oppressive moral rules, will
quite easily see an absence of telos in Smith’s work.
A Brief Overview of Smith’s Moral Philosophy
For Smith, the innate passions of humanity fall into three main categories: the
social passions of generosity, compassion, and esteem that, when practiced,
lead to benevolence and self-control. Unfortunately, these are rare and cannot
be counted on to provide the glue of a social order. The unsocial passions of
hate, envy, and revenge are never condoned as a social practice and they can-
not be transformed into a social virtue. The third category of passions includes
grief, joy, pain, pleasure, and self-preservation. These passions are the key to
the formation of the social order, and when the downside of these passions is
channeled for good, these passions become the virtues of prudence and jus-
tice.
The key to the transforming of passions into virtues is three screens or con-
ditioners that function to make society viable. The first is sympathy, which
helps people see themselves as others see them. The innate ability to see, hear,
feel, and identify with another person’s situation and to experience the same
fellow-feeling in return creates an interdependency that is socially construc-
tive. The second screen is the impartial spectator, which acts to provide a
totally unbiased perspective on how the passions are lived out. Finally, there is
always the appeal “to a still higher tribunal, to that of the all-seeing Judge of
the world, whose eye can never be deceived, and whose judgments can never
be perverted.”5
If this system of three checks on the passions is effectively supported by
the proper institutional structures, then the social order can be viable and vir-
tuous. In the area of economics, a market order will best fit this moral frame-
work because of its compatibility with the rules of prudence and justice. The
key is the effective control of the passions, and it is the moral order described
above that must be present in order for the market system to succeed. What fol-
lows is a more detailed discussion of that moral system with special attention
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 Is Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy
an Adequate Foundation for the
James Halteman Market Economy?

given to the question of whether that system is based on nature, custom, and If these caring passions were all that human nature instills in people, there
habit alone or whether there is a moral force involved that is anchored in some would be little need for moral dialogue because we would all naturally act in
sense of human telos or essence that defines human purpose. morally desirable ways. There would not need to be any search for telos, either,
because outside moral guidance would be unnecessary. Indeed, ethics and
morality would not be issues for debate, since people would be innately pro-
Moral Sympathy: The First Building Block
grammed to do the right thing. However, Smith recognized that these passions
of Smith’s Moral System are only part of the complex makeup of people. In fact, these social passions,
he felt, are not the dominant passions and therefore they cannot make the
The Theory of Moral Sentiments is a delight to read if for no other reason than
social system viable.
that it puts the reader in touch with his feelings. For Smith, nature has instilled
The selfish and the unsocial passions are harder to socialize, but sympathy
in people the necessary ingredients to make society viable and flourishing.
again has not left us hopeless. First, our sympathy with others is conditioned
Unlike modern economists, Smith assumes that people are highly interde-
by the context involved. “Even our sympathy with the grief or joy of another,
pendent as they consider the alternatives they face. Because people share sim-
before we are informed of the cause of either, is always imperfect.…
ilar feelings and passions, they can identify with others as others express their
Sympathy therefore does not arise so much from the view of the passion as
passions in behavior. This identification Smith called sympathy, and it is
from that of the situation that excites it.”9 Second, we seek the approval or
deeply rooted in our being. “By the imagination we place ourselves in his sit-
approbation of others because we are social beings. “But whatever may be the
uation, we conceive ourselves enduring all the same torments, we enter as it
cause of sympathy, or however it may be excited, nothing pleases us more
were into his body and become in some measure the same person with him,
than to observe in other men a fellow-feeling with all the emotions of our own
and thence form some idea of his sensations, and even feel something which,
breast.”10 This tendency helps to condition the selfish passions in ways that
though weaker in degree, is not altogether unlike them.”6
bring social harmony.
The instinct of sympathy is not a rational transporting of one into another’s
Clearly, Smith’s notion of self-interest is not expressed as the isolated pref-
shoes. Rather, it is a built-in response that is, for the most part, involuntary.
erence of an independent economic agent but, rather, as the conditioned
Smith’s example is instructive: “When we see a stroke aimed and just ready to
response of an interdependent participant in a social process. The interde-
fall upon the leg or arm of another person, we naturally shrink and draw back
pendent nature of sympathy allows this screen of sympathy to function effec-
our own leg or our own arm; and when it does fall, we feel it in some measure
tively. As Pat Werhane points out, even the butcher and the baker in the oft-
and are hurt by it as well as the sufferer.”7 Many other real-life situations are
used quote in Wealth of Nations cannot ignore the preferences and expectations
used to tease out a common-sense notion of this identification process for
of people when they pursue their own interest in the restaurant.11 In fact, they
each of the three categories of human passions.
are operating in a social environment that relies heavily on the interdepend-
Even though the social passions do not dominate behavior, they neverthe-
ence that is inherent in sympathy. One can successfully appeal to their desire
less are operative in everyone. “How selfish soever man may be supposed,
to be socially acceptable as well as to their narrow self-interest. The ability to
there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the for-
be in sympathy with another is to go beyond personal boundaries and interests
tunes of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives
toward a sense of what is appropriate for social harmony in a given context.
nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.”8 The passions of pity and
Sympathy in practice puts one in a community context.
compassion for someone in dire circumstances illustrate how one’s happiness
So far, there is little in this moral theory to suggest that morality is more
is reduced by observing distress or pain in another person. Conversely, the
than human nature, customs, and habits. Unfortunately, sympathy has a down-
alleviation of such pain enhances our pleasure. This consideration of others
side. There are tendencies in human nature that can cause the group to approve
occurs because of our ability to assess how we would feel if we were in the
of behavior that is morally questionable. One of the most pervasive examples
suffering person’s place. This exercise of our social passions through sympa-
of this problem in Smith’s work is the manner in which we elevate the rich
thy is the most meritorious behavior possible in our state of mutual interde-
and disdain the poor. “It is because mankind is disposed to sympathize more
pendence.

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entirely with our joy than with our sorrow, that we make parade of our riches
and conceal our poverty.”12 This theme recurs regularly with a pejorative tone
toward those with great wealth. “This disposition to admire and almost to
worship the rich and powerful, and to despise, or at least, to neglect persons of
poor and mean conditions, though necessary both to establish and to maintain
the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great
and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”13 Smith
recognizes the tension between our desire to be wealthy and to command
respect and our desire to be wise and to be virtuous, which would lead to a
more active care for the poor.
But upon coming into this world we soon find that wisdom and virtue are
by no means the sole objects of respect; nor vice and folly, of contempt. We
frequently see the respectful attentions of the world more strongly directed
towards the rich and the great, than towards the wise and the virtuous. We
see frequently the vices and follies of the powerful much-less-despised than
the poverty and weakness of the innocent. To deserve, to acquire, and to
enjoy the respect and admiration of mankind, are the great objects of ambi-
tion and emulation. Two, different roads are presented to us, equally leading
to the attainment of this so-much-desired object; the one by the study of
wisdom and the practice of virtue; the other by the acquisition of wealth
and greatness.”14
Smith is clear about which road, he believes, tends to dominate for those
capable of traveling on it.
To attain to this envied situation, the candidates for fortune too frequently
abandon the paths of virtue; for unhappily, the road, which leads to the one,
and that which leads to the other, lie sometimes in very opposite directions.
But the ambitious man flatters himself that, in the splendid situation to
which he advances, he will have so many means of commanding the respect
and admiration of mankind and will be enabled to act with such superior
propriety and grace that the luster of his future conduct will entirely cover,
or efface, the foulness of the steps by which he arrived at that elevation.15
Thus, sympathy, for all its social usefulness, needs help in order to ensure
moral outcomes. These lengthy quotes illustrate the high level of interdepend-
ency that Smith saw in human behavior. They also show that he did not believe
that the approbation, fellow-feeling, and approval-seeking of sympathy would
be enough to maintain a moral and just social order. The dark side of human
nature seemed to overpower the virtuous side too frequently. This darker side
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of human nature is most apparent in the selfish passions consisting of self-
preservation, grief, joy, and pain/pleasure choices, because the unsocial pas-
sions of hate, envy, and revenge are more easily controlled. This is true
because a social consensus against the exercise of these unsocial passions
exists from sympathy alone.
If sympathy were all there is to becoming moral, it would be clear that
MacIntyre is right about Smith. However, something outside of our innate ten-
dencies must have given Smith justification for being concerned about the
way that the rich are revered and the poor are ignored. Since sympathy alone
is insufficient to condition the selfish passions, these passions need another
safeguard. This safeguard, for Smith, is the “impartial spectator.”
The Impartial Spectator: The Second Building
Block of Smith’s Moral System
Moral discernment requires a stronger foundation than a simple desire to be
praised. To be truly moral is to develop the ability to do what is right rather
than simply to do what is considered acceptable by the masses. In order to do
right,
I divide myself, as it were, into two persons; and that I, the examiner and
judge, represent a different character from that other I, the person whose
conduct is examined into and judged of. The first is the spectator, whose
sentiments with regard to my own conduct I endeavor to enter into, by plac-
ing myself in his situation, and by considering how it would appear to me,
when seen from that particular point of view. The second is the agent, the
person whom I properly call “myself,” and of whose conduct, under the
character of a spectator, I was endeavoring to form some opinion.16
Operating as the first “I” in the situation described here is to tap into the
moral discernment of the impartial spectator. The perspective of this observer
helps one see what is praiseworthy and virtuous. Smith presumed that people
are capable of stepping outside themselves, going beyond mere sympathy, to
make an impartial assessment that considers all aspects of the behavior. In the
case of praise and blame, Smith is clear that what one’s peers think in the
sympathy process is less important than what one senses is right. Something
inside a person causes him to avoid undue praise. In fact, the motivation for
good behavior comes from the desire of people not only to be praised but to
be genuinely worthy of praise. In the same manner, if blamed, one expects to
be truly blameworthy. “Man naturally desires, not only to be loved but to be
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lovely; or to be that thing that is the natural and proper object of love. He nat-
urally dreads, not only to be hated but to be hateful; or to be that thing that is
the natural and proper object of hatred.”17
Blame that is known to be unworthy does not hurt as much as deserved
blame, and praise that is unworthy does not gratify as much as praise that is
worthy. The difference between the worthy and unworthy is discerned by the
impartial spectator. To be virtuous is to desire praiseworthiness and to avoid
being worthy of blame, but something outside of the innate sympathies of
people informs the impartial spectator about what is praiseworthy and blame-
worthy.
Smith has many examples of this influence of the impartial spectator.
People who use makeup to cover a bad complexion are not genuinely flattered
by compliments on their good complexion. Alternatively, people who perform
heroic acts do so, recognizing that they may not live to receive any praise. In
short, people in their best moments seek what is virtuous. Yet, the origin of
this spectator upon which we rely to discern virtue is still somewhat ambigu-
ous. Does it represent humanity as it ought to be if it recognizes its true telos
or is it little more than the polling of an impartial audience at a game show?
In comparing the screen of sympathy with the impartial spectator, Smith
declares
But though man has, in this manner, been rendered the immediate judge of
mankind, he has been rendered so only in the first instance; and an appeal
lies from his sentence to a much higher tribunal, to the tribunal of his own
conscience, to that of the supposed impartial and well-informed spectator,
to that of the man within the breast, the great judge and arbiter of their con-
duct.18
The lower and higher tribunals relate respectively to the desire to be praised
and the desire to be praiseworthy. Peer judgments relate to the desire to be
praised, but the impartial spectator calls us to desire the virtue of being praise-
worthy. The Creator has endowed all humans with both of these tribunals as
complementary screens of behavior. The lower tribunal deals with the behav-
ior itself and whether it is generally agreeable to others. The higher tribunal
deals with the motives behind the action and the sincerity of the action. “The
man who is conscious to himself that he has exactly observed those measures
of conduct that experience informs him are generally agreeable, reflects with
satisfaction on the propriety of his own behavior. When he views it in the light
in which the impartial spectator would view it, he thoroughly enters into all
the motives that influenced it.”19
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Smith’s concern for human motivation is clearly tied to the role of the
impartial spectator. Desirable consequences alone do not imply moral action.
Emma Rothschild highlights this point and makes the claim that the tension
being dealt with throughout the theory of moral sentiments is the degree to
which morality is based on consequences or intentions. She concludes that
“To be contemptuous of individual intentions, to see them as futile and blind,
is to take a distinctively un-Smithian view of human life.”20 According to
Fitzgibbons, Smith saw God guiding the world through the laws of nature and,
in a parallel manner he guided humans through the impartial spectator.21
In addition to dealing with the inner motivations of our actions the impar-
tial spectator helps condition our perspective, which is so influenced by our
own interests, so that the larger social interest results. In an extended example,
Smith tells of a person who injures his finger on the same day that China was
ravaged by an earthquake. While the self-interest of the injured person is to
complain about his finger, he comments to his neighbors on the horror of the
earthquake instead. Smith asks the obvious question:
When our passive feelings are almost always so sordid and so selfish, how
comes it that our active principles should often be so generous and so noble?
… It is not the soft power of humanity, it is not that feeble spark of benev-
olence that Nature has lighted up in the human heart, that is thus capable of
counteracting the strongest impulses of self love. It is a stronger power, a
more forcible motive, which exerts itself upon such occasions. It is reason,
principle, conscience, the inhabitant of the breast, the man within, the great
judge and arbiter of our conduct. It is he who, whenever we are about to act
so as to affect the happiness of others, calls to us, with a voice capable of
astonishing the most presumptuous of our passions, that we are but one of
the multitude, in no respect better than any other in it; and that when we
prefer ourselves so shamefully and so blindly to others, we become the
proper objects of resentment, abhorrence, and execration.22
Here Smith links the impartial spectator to reason, something that
MacIntyre argues is absent from Enlightenment morality. For Smith there
appears to be a private self-interest and a social interest with the impartial
spectator drawing humanity away from the private to the social interest. The
impartial spectator in this case is beyond the soft power of humanity or the
innate social passions. Though the source of the impartial spectator is ambigu-
ous in this passage, it seems considerably removed from human nature, cus-
tom, and habit.
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In fact, Smith criticizes the speculations of philosophers, or “quibbling
dialectics” as he calls them, because they do not seek the wisdom of the impar-
tial spectator.
If we examine the different shades and gradations of weakness and self-
command, as we meet with them in common life, we shall very easily sat-
isfy ourselves that this control of our passive feelings must be acquired, not
from the abstruse syllogisms of a quibbling dialectic but from that great dis-
cipline that Nature has established for the acquisition of this and of every
other virtue; a regard to the sentiments of the real or supposed spectator of
our conduct.23
Smith does not root morality in our ability to attach self-command to sym-
pathy or to our ability philosophically to discern right from wrong. Rather, he
looks to the impartial spectator that comes to us from creation and is outside
of ourselves—but people often do not have constancy in following the impar-
tial spectator, so the moral battle is ever-present. In one example of a person
in distress, Smith describes the battle that goes on between the selfish pas-
sions and the impartial spectator.
His own natural feelings of his own distress … presses hard upon him, and
he cannot, without a very great effort, fix his attention upon that of the
impartial spectator. Both views present themselves to him at the same time.
His sense of honor, his regard to his own dignity, directs him to fix his
whole attention upon the one view. His natural, his untaught and undisci-
plined feelings, are continually calling it off to the other. He does not, in
this case, perfectly identify himself with the ideal man within the breast, he
does not become himself the impartial spectator of his own conduct.24
In other words, the inability to appropriate the ideal impartial spectator
limits the ability of people to live a truly moral life. The language and context
of this discussion points toward a view of the impartial spectator that approx-
imates the conscience as it is used in modern discussion. There is a spiritual
component to the conscience, but it can be easily abused by human weakness.
In a similar manner, there are times when public pressure opposes the impar-
tial spectator’s judgment for a person, and in those times the influence of the
spectator will become weak and faltering, leaving the person with sympathy
alone to guide action.
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Market Economy?
In such cases, this demigod within the breast appears like the demigods of
the poets, though partly of immortal, yet partly, too, of mortal extraction.
When his judgments are steadily and firmly directed by the sense of praise-
worthiness and blameworthiness, he seems to act suitably to his divine
extraction: But when he suffers himself to be astonished and confounded by
the judgments of ignorant and weak man, he discovers his connexion with
mortality, and appears to act suitably, rather to the human, than to the divine,
part of his origin.25
The All-Seeing Judge of the World:
The Still-Higher Tribunal
This divine and human extraction of the impartial spectator leaves the possi-
bility of unsolved moral dilemmas where there is no reliable guidance left for
a person involved in such a situation. Commenting on the mortal side of the
impartial spectator, Smith concludes that there are times when the impartial
spectator is no more dependable than the man without (sympathy of public)
that accepts options that are not just or ethical.
In such cases, the only effectual consolation of humbled and afflicted man
lies in an appeal to a still-higher tribunal, to that of the all-seeing Judge of
the world, whose eye can never be deceived and whose judgments can never
be perverted. A firm confidence in the unerring rectitude of this great tribu-
nal, before which his innocence is in due time to be declared, and his virtue
to be finally rewarded, can alone support him under the weakness and
despondency of his own mind, under the perturbation and astonishment of
the man within the breast, whom nature has set up as, in this life, the great
guardian, not only of his innocence but of his tranquility. Our happiness in
this life is, thus, upon many occasions, dependent upon the humble hope
and expectation of a life to come: a hope and expectation deeply rooted in
human nature, which can alone support its lofty ideas of its own dignity.26
Smith believed that the idea of life beyond death where justice is fully real-
ized is a valuable contributor to the willingness of people to transcend a weak
man within and a faulty man without. Having this fully immortal backup to
the impartial spectator, whether real or imagined, would be the final line of
defense against antisocial behavior. Religious values could be very beneficial
to a social order. In this sense, Smith, though espousing only a natural reli-
gion, did adopt a concept of telos that specified how people would behave if
they live up to their essential purpose.
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The Stoic tradition, which can be seen beneath the surface of Smith’s moral
analysis, came through several phases from early Hellenistic philosophy
through the Roman period up to the third century. Fundamental to Stoic think-
ing is the notion that the world is an ideally good organism that operates as a
system with each part serving the whole. A divine logos, or primary moving
force, ordained the system and acted as its guide, but direct access to the
Creator rather than submission to the created order is an error of Christianity.
Moral development, in the Stoic view, involved an ever-expanding sense of
one’s self-interest until the good of the whole is foremost even to the point of
sacrificing what would commonly be one’s personal interest, though later
Stoicism developed a more pragmatic, ethical posture.
The notion of self-control in Stoicism gives clues as to how one progresses
morally. Smith’s ability to connect the Stoic organismic view of the world
with the mechanistic natural concepts of the Enlightenment provided a broad
base on which Smith built his views. The notion of moral progress in Stoicism
when blended with the Enlightenment ideas of moral precepts led Smith to his
three-level approach to the moral socializing of behavior. The ability to exer-
cise sympathy, appropriate to the impartial spectator and, if need be, the final
judge of our conduct, can be seen as a marriage of Stoic moral development
and the secular virtue concepts of David Hume. While there may be no teleol-
ogy in Hume, one can see Stoic threads in Smith that make the teleological
claims plausible.
The Role of Rules in Proper Conduct
Smith believed that if the proper institutional structures were established and
new rules of the economic game could be established, then a new era of eco-
nomic performance would result. The reason for established rules in a social
order relates to the problem of appropriating the impartial spectator. Since all
the circumstances and motivations must be known before the impartial specta-
tor can authoritatively speak, and because humans rarely know those things in
advance, it is necessary to set up general practices and rules that simplify the
moral discernment process. “So partial are the views of mankind with regard
to the propriety of their own conduct, both at the time of action and after it;
and so difficult is it for them to view it in the light in which any indifferent
spectator would consider it.”27
Given this problem and the fact that individuals are easily self-deceived,
Smith sees in nature a method that can standardize behavior effectively. We
observe behavior that generates individual welfare and social harmony, and
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we see behavior that does not. “It is thus that general rules of morality are
formed. They are ultimately founded upon experience of what, in particular
instances, our moral faculties, our natural sense of merit and demerit, approve,
or disapprove of.”28 Once the rules are established, it becomes the duty of
everyone to follow the rules. Apparently, nature reinforces the opinion that the
Deity is behind the rules and will subtly enforce them. “Those vice-regents of
God within us, never fail to punish the violation of them, [rules] by the
torments of inward shame and self-condemnation; and, on the contrary, always
reward obedience with tranquility of mind, with contentment, and self-
satisfaction.”29
Conversely, for Smith, the rules are limited in their purpose. In discussing
the operation of virtue development, Smith divides the process into efficient
and final causes. The efficient cause of the heart, arteries and veins, or the
digestive track in the body is to circulate blood and process food respectively.
The efficient cause of the wheels of a clock is to spin with consistency. The
final cause of the body is to make human life meaningful, and the final cause
of the watch is to tell time. At this point Smith claims that we are trying to do
too much if we focus on final causes.
But though, in accounting for the operations of bodies, we never fail to dis-
tinguish in this manner the efficient from the final cause, in accounting for
those of the mind we are apt to confound these two different things with
one another. When, by natural principles we are led to advance those ends,
which a refined and enlightened reason would recommend to us, we are
very apt to impute to that reason, as to their efficient cause, the sentiments
and actions by which we advance those ends, and to imagine that to be the
wisdom of man, which, in reality, is the wisdom of God.30
This passage illustrates Smith’s concern that we confuse natural systems,
which function as efficient causes, with the ends of social organization, which
are the final causes. In short, the natural system is God’s design and the ten-
dencies and forces that he programs into the system guide those concerned
with morality to the virtues that God intends for us—but the guiding process
is toward an end, which is more than simply a viable social order or an effi-
cient economy. The goal is to achieve the perfection of human nature. “And
hence it is, that to feel much for others and little for ourselves, that to restrain
our selfish, and to indulge our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection
of human nature; and can alone produce among mankind that harmony of sen-
timents and passions in which consists their whole grace and propriety.”31
This surely represents a vision of the essential purpose of human creation and
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James Halteman
the role of the impartial spectator and the higher tribunal are not trivial in this
process of perfecting human nature.
MacIntyre’s reading of Smith at this point sees Smith’s view of nature as a
substitute for the Christian God. When applied to a setting such as economics,
nature prescribes principles or rules that when submitted to properly, become
a system of prudence. When a similar approach is taken in the moral realm,
ethics and moral reflection become a prudential rule following enterprise.
When Smith says, “The man who acts according to the rules of perfect pru-
dence, of strict justice, and of proper benevolence, may be said to be perfectly
virtuous,”32 MacIntyre sees Smith as having a moral system that simply fol-
lows rules given in a system based on human passions. When Smith criticizes
ancient moralists for ignoring the rules of justice, MacIntyre sees Smith as
equating virtue with rule-following.33 No purpose beyond the rules of pru-
dence is recognized. While I agree that the intellectual climate in which Smith
wrote would support MacIntyre’s view, I believe that Smith could not easily
discard the notion that there is a meaningful telos toward which, human activ-
ity should be directed. Smith’s references to the design of God, his vice-
regents within us, the higher tribunal, and final causation, I argue, are attempts
by Smith to hold onto a sense of telos.
A Look At the Wider Literature on Smith
Joseph Cropsey would disagree with any attempt to interpret Smith as having
a view that moral judgment might involve some sense of telos. To make this
argument work, Cropsey adopts a materialist view of body and soul, and he
interprets Smith to be saying that “the distinction between virtue and vice or
between right and wrong conduct is the product of a purely mechanical
process—a process not guided by free understanding of intrinsic goodness or
badness but by sympathetic reaction to passion.”34 For Cropsey, Smith’s three
screens conditioning the passions (sympathy, impartial spectator, and all-
seeing judge of the world) reduce to the one screen of sympathy that is the
natural source of right and wrong. Also, that screen would not be a screen but,
rather, an inherent part of the passions. Cropsey argues that “the traditional
idea of moral education through exhortation is inferentially rejected. The true
provenience of virtue is seen as the indefeasible passions themselves, not the
careful conquest of the passions.”35
The Theory of Moral Sentiments is seen, in this view, as “an example of the
rhetoricization of moral philosophy” where rhetoric is seen as a device to
make people manageable but not necessarily good.36 Cropsey does recognize
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Is Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy
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Market Economy?
that his view makes Smith appear inconsistent. In commenting on the incom-
patibility of having all action originate with the passions while still accepting
the need for moral judgment, Cropsey states:
Apart from the fact that Smith appears involved in an inconsistency, what
meaning does the inconsistency itself have? I believe it means that the vin-
dication of commercial society required Smith to speak of the passions of
the body as the essence of man’s humanity. But for reasons that we may, for
convenience, refer to as the influence upon him of classical morality, he
was unwilling to abandon the possibility of moral judgment.37
Cropsey’s view is common among some Smith scholars. They see his
reliance on justice and prudence as an escape from ideology and questions of
purpose, but nearly all of them do mention, as Cropsey does above, that there
is something in Smith that made moral judgment and human purpose some-
thing he was not able to completely discard. This approach is similar to that of
other Smith scholars such as D. D. Raphael, Ronald Coase, Emma Rothschild,
Knud Haakonssen, A. L. Macfie, and T. D. Campbell. All of these writers rec-
ognize that Smith sometimes uses teleological language, but they see such ref-
erences as either rhetorical concessions to existing religious sentiments or
efforts to extend nature to both an object and an ideal.38 Thus, Smith’s moral
theory is empirical and natural and can stand alone without linkages to a final
cause. Sympathy and a temporal impartial spectator are sufficient screens to
socialize the unsocial passions of humanity, and these screens determine what
is moral and immoral.
Any attempt to ground morality in a metaphysical reality or theology is
going beyond Smith’s intent despite his discussions of God and a final cause.
In T. D. Campbell’s words, “Nature was, for Smith, as for most eighteenth-
century theorists, both an object to be studied and an ideal to be brought into
existence.… The resurrection of natural-law theory in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries was part of an attempt to establish a theology that was
independent of revelation and a morality that was independent of religion.”39
This view sees Smith as arguing for God from nature’s design rather than from
the need for an exogenous moral standard.
Another example of this treatment of Smith is Samuel Fleischacker’s analy-
sis of Smith. He clearly has Smith in the modern camp and, thus, minimizes
any teleological basis that might be found in Smith’s moral philosophy. As for
Cropsey and others, there is recognition that Smith has not completely left an
Aristotelian-based virtue ethics that seeks the perfection of humans. Such a
process requires some understanding of a standard against which to measure
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human action. Fleischacker comments on the dilemma that Smith faced in try-
ing to reconcile an Aristotelian teleology with its hierarchical social structure,
and modern liberalism with its egalitarian individualism.
Were he to follow Aristotle down the line, rooting ethics in a teleological
conception of nature and praising hierarchical structures for governing poli-
ties, he could offer nothing to the ethics of a modern scientific world or to
the politics of a liberal democratic one. As it happens, he differs from
Aristotle in two crucial respects. The first is that he submerges, if not quite
eliminates [italics mine], the teleology that characterizes Aristotelian ethics.
The second is that he refuses to grant any natural superiority to one human
being over another.40
In fact, Smith does see a natural social hierarchy even though he might pre-
fer it otherwise (see note 13); and even if he believes that it is submerged,
Fleischacker sees something resembling telos in Smith.
One final example of this effort to make Smith thoroughly modern is
Charles Griswold. He contends that teleology, which is rooted in a metaphys-
ical biology, relies heavily on nature as the basis from which our behavior
springs. Griswold dissects Smith’s view of nature and concludes that Smith
has rejected the Aristotelian notion that nature involves a metaphysical form
or essence of a thing. For Griswold, Smith’s impartial spectator puts moral
behavior in the arena of self-reflection more akin to Kant’s “autonomous self-
legislation” than to natural moral perfection.41 However, Griswold concludes
by qualifying his claims that Smith had moved away from a teleologically
based moral system.
Commenting on Smith’s use of nature, Griswold admits that “Smith uses
the term and its cognates with great frequency throughout his work. It occurs
in the title of one of his two published books, and there may even be a role for
teleology in his system. Smith, thus, seems to be one of the last major philoso-
phers whose work is a defense of nature, even though he has dropped some of
its traditional meanings”42 [italics mine]. Only if one reads Smith with an
openness to seeing nature as consisting of a metaphysical essence as well as a
physical presence, can one see the side of Smith that shows the role of teleol-
ogy in his system.
In one of the more creative treatments of Smith’s moral theory, James
Otteson questions the notion that Smith’s references to God, a final cause, or
the Author of nature are simply rhetorical concessions designed to avoid a full
explanation of the harmony of nature. Otteson argues that Smith was not sat-
isfied with an empirical explanation of how nature has equipped people with
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Is Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy
an Adequate Foundation for the
Market Economy?
traits that enable them to discern right and wrong. “The question is why we
have these traits built into us. Smith’s answer to this is, as we have seen, that
it is part of God’s or Nature’s grand benevolent design.”43 In Otteson’s view
of Smith’s system, it is not possible to separate the source of our traits and
tendencies from the practice that leads us to a moral system that provides the
social glue of life. Otteson claims that “… the issues of explaining human
nature and explaining the nature of the marketplace of morals cannot be
answered independently from one another—at least not without creating a
truncated view of Smith.”44
Jeffrey Young points to numerous cases where Smith goes beyond contex-
tual moral considerations and appeals to objective, external standards of
morality. One case is where Smith critiques Hobbes for implying that right
and wrong was merely the arbitrary will of the civil magistrate.45 Another case
involves the story of a socially sanctioned Greek practice of child abandon-
ment. Smith opposes all such general and particular practices that might per-
vert our sentiments. He argues that “No society could subsist a moment, in
which the usual strain of men’s conduct and behavior was of a piece with the
horrible practice I have just now mentioned.”46 The fact that, in Smith’s mind,
sentiments can be so perverted is evidence that moral judgments cannot have
their foundation in human sentiments alone. Young emphasizes Smith’s
reliance on the “ideal spectator” as the standard of moral conduct that trumps
any custom or practice approved by our sentiments alone.47
It certainly is important to recognize that, in the hands of Jeremy Bentham,
James Mill, David Ricardo, John S. Mill, and other philosophical radicals of
the early nineteenth century, the notion of moral discernment related to telos
disappeared. For them, social norms based on utilitarian ideas made morality
an issue for continual social negotiation rather than for something grounded in
natural or divine law. While these social thinkers drew heavily on Smith’s
economic principles, they ignored his moral theory. The loss of telos in main-
stream economic thinking is more accurately attributed to these philosophical
radicals than to Adam Smith.
If Smith indeed had a sense of telos in his moral theory, the next question
to ask is, whether Smith’s system is sufficient to save economics from the
doom predicted by MacIntyre for those disciplines that rely on Enlightenment
thinking that is devoid of telos. This, of course presumes that MacIntyre’s
assessment of the Enlightenment problem is valid in the first place. This article
is not intended to explore the pros and cons of the MacIntyre thesis. Rather, it
assumes that it does make some difference in economic life if a human pur-
pose exists external to the natural passions of people. If the Christian story of
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James Halteman Market Economy?

the fall of human nature points toward behavior that is bent toward the self omists need to point? Alternatively, the question could be asked: Is the
and away from the common good, then it is reasonable to question, as Christian redemption of the social order a central part of the Christian agenda
MacIntyre does, whether a social system without an exogenous moral com- or is the influence of the Christian faith on the social order a desirable but
pass can be viable and flourishing in the long run. nonessential by-product of a Christian witness well-lived?
The answer to these questions depends heavily on how one understands
the three scenarios described above. Several options are apparent. First, if
Three Alternatives for a Moral
MacIntyre is right about Smith, and liberalism is devoid of a moral foundation
Foundation in Economic Life outside of human nature, habit, and custom, then Christians become an essen-
tial force in the preservation of the liberal worldview. If view two is really
If the thesis of this article is granted, then three scenarios come to mind as
only view one in disguise, then redeeming the social structures is part of the
possible moral frameworks for economic life.
Christian calling because being the best that the secular liberal social order
In the first scenario, the pure Enlightenment view proposes that nature, as
can be apart from Christianity is not good enough.
our senses and passions perceive it, has given us the moral tools with which to
Second, if Smith indeed has identified in human behavior a moral force
make meaningful moral judgments that are satisfying and sufficient in coordi-
anchored by a sense of telos, then MacIntyre’s prophecy is irrelevant and the
nating social activity. Thus, human nature, custom, and habit, together can
liberal social order may survive and perhaps thrive without being influenced
provide sufficient moral and social glue for the liberal social order. David
by explicitly Christian values. In other words, the best that the liberal secular
Hume might be an example of this approach.
social order can be, while it falls short of the radical Christian calling, is ade-
In the second scenario, the Smithian view for which this article argues,
quate for maintenance of a successful social organization since there is a telos-
proposes that the moral life requires moral tools given to us by creation as part
based morality. In this case, Christians add new radical perspectives that ful-
of our nature, but that those moral tools presuppose some exogenous moral
fill the deepest longings of humanity and offer more meaningful solutions to
force toward which the essence of our being points. This sense of telos, be it
human problems, but the survival of the social system does not depend on the
real or imagined to us, is necessary and sufficient for a social order to be
implementation of Christian ethics.
viable. Moral practice cannot be separated from the source of moral life.
The line of reasoning followed in this article is that Smith’s moral senti-
In the third scenario, a typical Christian view takes the Smithian approach
ments do provide an adequate moral base for the survival of secular liberal-
further by personalizing the exogenous divine moral force in a relational God
ism. Regarding the role of Christians in the system, I will argue that they do
who is active in real time, drawing people toward enduring values through the
add value to the social enterprise by living out the radical teachings of Jesus,
revelation of himself throughout history. A social order devoid of that influ-
which give full expression to the social passions of benevolence, compassion,
ence falls far short of its potential. The purpose of human life is to glorify
esteem, and generosity. These passions, Smith felt, were in too-short supply to
God.
condition behavior effectively but, where practiced, they do represent a model
I have tried to show in this article that Smith holds the second but not the
to be emulated.
first approach. MacIntyre sees no future for social science if it limits itself to
Smith never, clearly, articulated his views on religion. To him, a complete
the first approach, but his prognosis is not directed at the second approach,
system of thought included political economy, moral philosophy, government,
which I describe as Smith’s view.
and natural religion. The Wealth of Nations covers the first category. The
The final question raised in this article is whether the second approach is
Theory of Moral Sentiments deals with the second category, and his Lectures
sufficient for a viable social system or whether the value added by the third
on Jurisprudence cover the third category. The final area of natural religion,
view is needed in the long run? In other words, Is the Christian message cen-
unfortunately, was never finished in a public work. Since he had all his unpub-
tral to social viability or is it primarily a higher calling for those whom God is
lished papers burned upon his death, one might speculate that there was much
calling into the kingdom of God? Is the Christian message foolishness to the
unresolved in his mind about religion. He clearly did not believe that high
world or is it part of the natural order of things, toward which, Christian econ-
virtue espoused in Greek philosophy and Christian thought was useful as a

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James Halteman Market Economy?

foundation for social organization. Rather, a more-mundane, natural, moral 8. Ibid., 9.

path to economic sufficiency was needed, but I have argued here that the path 9. Ibid., 11–12.
toward efficiency that Smith espoused did include a moral purpose from out-
10. Ibid., 13.
side the bounds of homo economicus. Human nature, custom, and habit are
too limited a view of the moral life as Smith understood it. 11. Patricia H. Werhane, Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism (New
It is no simple matter to argue that the Christian calling involves expres- York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 92–93.
sions of the social passions that would not be expected of those who do not 12. Smith, 50.
share the same calling. Such a claim implies that Christian transformation of
13. Ibid., 61
the social order will be limited at best or a failure at worst. The pitfalls in all
directions are many. In some cases, Christians simply ignore any prophetic 14. Ibid., 62.
message and become supporters of whatever social system works for them. 15. Ibid., 64.
On the one hand, adopting a civil religion or seeing market capitalism as God’s 16. Ibid., 113.
plan for economic life has been a common course of action. On the other hand,
17. Ibid., 113–14.
withdrawing from the ambiguities of the world and retreating into enclaves of
spiritual purity is hardly consistent with the life of Jesus, which was heavily 18. Ibid., 130.
engaged with the real problems in the world around him. 19. Ibid., 116.
Somewhere on a continuum between these two extremes there is room for
20. Emma Rothschild, Economic Sentiments (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
debate on how Christians should respond. The purpose of this article is to
Press, 2001), 124.
show that the task of Christians need not be to save the secular system from
collapse by infusing Christian principles into the system. If my interpretation 21. Athol Fitzgibbons, Adam Smith’s System of Liberty, Wealth, and Virtue (New
of Smith is correct, the secular system has sufficient moral resources for its York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 20.
own survival. What Christians can do is to provide an alternative model show- 22. Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 137.
ing how life can be more meaningful than the best that the world can offer. By 23. Ibid., 145.
doing so, they effect change on the margin without selling out to the spirit of
24. Ibid., 148.
the world.48
25. Ibid., 131.

Notes 26. Ibid., 131–32.

27. Ibid., 158.
1. Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue, 2d ed. (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre 28. Ibid., 159.
Dame Press, 1984), 54.
29. Ibid., 166.
2. Ibid., 54.
30. Ibid., 87.
3. Ibid., 19.
31. Ibid., 25.
4. Ibid., 25.
32. Ibid., 237.
5. Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Indianapolis, Ind.: Liberty Fund,
1984), 131. 33. MacIntyre, 235.

6. Ibid., 9. 34. Joseph Cropsey, Polity and Economy (South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine’s Press,
2001), 16.
7. Ibid., 10.

474 475

James Halteman
35. Ibid., 27.
36. Ibid., 30.
37. Ibid., 20.
38. James R. Otteson, Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2002), 240–44. A brief account of these authors’ views are dis-
cussed on these pages. For the primary source material, see the books listed in the
bibliography under these authors’ names.
39. T. D. Campbell, Adam Smith’s Science of Morals (London: Allen and Unwin,
1971), 53.
40. Samuel Fleischacker, A Third Concept of Liberty (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1999), 140.
41. Charles L. Griswold, Jr., Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 314.
42. Ibid., 314.
43. Otteson, 246.
44. Ibid., 247.
45. Jeffrey T. Young, Economics As a Moral Science: The Political Economy of Adam
Smith (Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar Press, 1997), 40.
46. Smith, 211.
47. Young, 41.
48. The role of the Christian in culture is an ongoing topic that can never be fully
resolved. Reformed theology pulls one toward the transformation of the social
order by deep involvement in all the social systems. Anabaptist theology, while
recognizing more and more the need for influence in the social structures, still
calls for a life of discipleship that acts as an alternative parallel model to the best
that the world can be. In the Clashing Worlds of Economics and Faith (Scottdale,
Pa.: Herald Press, 1995), I have tried to sketch out how such an alternative model
might interface with a market economy, but the conversation among Christian
economists will, no doubt, continue keeping both approaches mindful of the
opportunities and pitfalls of each strategy.
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